How much should a website cost?

Who’s involved in building a website?



This depends on the size and complexity of the web build. Larger organisations and government departments may require a more comprehensive solution, pulling together many digital skills. A full website team consists of:



Web designer – the person that creates the look and feel of your website. They either design flat images and send these to a web developer to code or design directly within a website builder. They are skilled in knowing design techniques that are easy to code to avoid large development costs.



Web developer – the person that codes the website so web browsers can read it. A front end developer will focus on coding the design of your website. A back end developer is more involved with databases that drive a website.

User experience (UX) designer – this person will focus more on the strategy than the visuals of a website i.e. how should the website be organised to lead people through it effectively.

Information architect / digital strategist - this person provides strategic advice on how to organise content and label categories. They will often create reports and wireframes to help explain their ideas.

Copywriter – the person who specialises in the art of writing copy that sells.

Content writer – the person who specialises in creating web content that informs and educates.

Naturally having a web team this size is going to drive up the price of your site. While it’s a requirement for some organisations, it’s not necessary for all.



DIY website builders – are they the right solution for you?



Many of us will have heard of DIY website builders such as Squarespace and Wix and they can be a good solution for clients with smaller businesses that want to handle the design and build themselves to keep costs down. However there are many things to consider:

• Design options are limited and can look generic
• They can suffer from slow loading times
• You may find you need a more custom website to achieve your business goals, particularly as your business grows
• You need to factor in your time to build and maintain the site
• While you don’t need to be a tech wizard to use these platforms, you do need to be tech savvy. If you’re wanting to veer slightly of course from the pre-set template it can be very time consuming and stressful for those that don’t use these systems day in day out
• It can be difficult to move your website to another provider



I’d like agency support but have a limited budget – what are my options?

Most companies in New Zealand are classed as small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and with that most require or would benefit from some agency support. These businesses often don’t require a fully custom website coded by a web developer. In fact we’re seeing more and more web designers designing directly within web builders. As these systems become more sophisticated and require less coding know-how, this is driving the cost of building a website down. The role of the web developer is changing and they are focusing more of their time on niche coding requirements.

Hiring a web designer to create a professional site will strengthen your brand, provide a better user experience and give you an online presence that stands out from the crowd. Plus when you engage an agency you’ll also benefit from:

Technical support



While our content management systems make it easy for clients to edit their site themselves, sometimes amends may be a little more complex or you may be in a hurry for a particular campaign. Couple that with keeping abreast with the latest web standards and your agency relationship becomes invaluable.

Faster load times and more reliable hosting

A surefire way to lose a customer is to present them with a slow loading website. The problem with DIY websites is that they pay little attention to page speed which can really hurt user experience. Plus hosting offered by DIY providers can be unreliable and often bottom-dollar which can cause no end of pain with outages and little to no customer service support.

Having a website that looks great is only part of the equation. If search engine optimization (SEO) elements like keywords, title tags and meta descriptions, it may be wise to engage a professional. Google takes these factors and many more into consideration when determining where to place your site in its search engine. The more attention you give to SEO, the better your chance of appearing on Google’s fist page.

Analytics tools

Google Analytics will be added to your website as standard. It’s incredibly important to keep a close eye on your analytics to determine how your site is performing. Are you focusing on the right content, is your website achieving its goals, are you promoting your site on the right social channels? These are just a few of the important questions Google Analytics can help you answer. Plus you’ll also receive valuable insight on the age, gender, interest and location of your audience.

I need help with my website!

Good news, you’re in the right place. Before we end with a sales pitch, we want to say that we’ve seen far too many businesses in New Zealand being sold websites that are more expensive than they need to be. Given what we’ve shared above, we believe those days should be over. We offer a very reasonable starting price of $95 per month which includes a five page website, SEO, hosting and editing support. So check out our pricing options and portfolio and please get in touch with questions and we’ll see what we can do to help.